Playing Co-op in Assassin’s Creed Unity

Crowds choke the streets of Paris as Arno watches from the rooftops. Newly released from apprenticeship, Arno has been tasked with the assassination of a Templar wandering the high hall of Notre Dame during the French Revolution. This assignment can take many different paths, and demonstrates just how free a player is in Assassin’s Creed Unity — the latest project from the open-world masterminds at Ubisoft Montreal.

Assassin’s Creed Rogue

Assassin’s Creed Rogue delivers an entirely new narrative perspective thanks to its hero, Shay Patrick Cormac — a former Assassin and newly-minted Templar. Players will follow the events that lead Shay to defect from the Brotherhood and become a hunter.

Rogue will also feature the fan-favorite naval combat that first appeared in Assassin’s Creed III and had an even more robust presence in Black Flag. Shay’s ship, the Morrigan, will come equipped with new weapons to face the enhanced enemy AI manning opposing ships.

During Ubisoft’s demonstration, Arno worked his way inside Notre Dame to meet the Templar in a confessional, taking the man’s life in a swift and silent flash of steel. But the mission went awry, and guards tracked the assassin tirelessly as he ducked and weaved between towering pillars and flustered Parisians.

Ubisoft wants the stealth/combat loop to open and close more fluidly than in previous Assassin’s Creed games, making diversions into swordplay and gunfire more natural. The developers hope that players will traverse back into stealth more regularly, rather than ending every wrong turn with a battle. The player is, after all, an assassin. Not a soldier.

Arno’s Eagle Vision assists with these encounters, as ever. A quick button tap paints notable targets and enemy guards in bright colors, enabling players to navigate treacherous areas more readily. I used it myself during a co-op demo with a gracious volunteer from Ubisoft Montreal.

The online cooperative component of Assassin’s Creed Unity opens up a tremendous amount of new strategies formerly unavailable in the series. Even during an excursion through an underground labyrinth, the presence of a second assassin changes the way players can approach any given situation.

Take two guards, for example, idling about outside a tunnel entrance. They’re too far apart for one assassin to take out without alerting the other, but with two players working together the guards stand no chance. Even knowing that someone else is keeping an eye out while I take down a straggling enemy makes Unity a much richer endeavor for it.

Ubisoft Montreal has also gone to great lengths to make Arno’s gear a complex and rewarding system that influences play. Now, every hood, belt, coat, and weapon affects the way Arno moves through the world, encouraging players to customize his or her version of Arno. Taking advantage of gear types in single-player alone is an appetizing prospect, but mixing and matching a whole team of assassins makes the thought of multiplayer even more alluring.

All this gear facilitates a player’s exploration of Paris, which is a city of such size and scope that it’s hard not to feel awed — even overwhelmed. Players will experience that for themselves when Assassin’s Creed Unity launches on PS4 October 28th.

Settings look GORGEOUS (as they should if you’re going to make a game on PS4 and set it in Paris!!), but I’m still waiting on reviews – Assassin’s Creed (like many games) needs to find variety in its missions. The fact that Ubisoft is making 2 Assassin’s Creed games at the same time instead of focusing all their talents on making 1 HUGE + GREAT game is another reason to be hesitant. We’ll see though.. it damn sure looks good thats for sure. I don’t think most gamers will have the time nor have the will / desire to buy both the ps3 and ps4 versions of the game though – so I think this is actually splitting fans – again.. 1 game would have made more sense, at least to me. I’ll only be looking at the ps4 version, unless somehow the ps3 version gets amazing reviews and the ps4 one doesn’t.

It’ll be quite a feat if Ubisoft can make TWO VERY good assassin’s creed games at the same time. They might shut me up that way. ;) If not…I suggest going back to making 1 game at a time, and not trying to rush so many games of the same series out.

Did Ubisoft confirm whether all the co-op missions are optional? I just don’t need anyone else goofing around in my game. I just like to experience open world games and missions at my own pace. AC Unity looks great regardless and I’m looking forward to AC Rogue.

@5 …that’s a damn good idea. I’m not sure why so many developers have left “couch coop” behind. It can be done..and it’s a totally different experience than playing online. Obviously, you can’t play with your brother unless you both buy copies of the game and two systems. What I’m trying to say is that if they want to make these games and their coop more intimate – then they really need to start thinking about bringing couch coop back.

It would be amazing for Assassin’s Creed. You could always pull the camera back a little to give players some freedom to head in different directions… but the real beauty would come when 2-4 local players are all fighting the same battle together, on the same screen.

Or maybe I’m just getting old.. :/ lol. I think developers KNOW it’s a cool idea, but they just let it slide because they figure online is more important / will make more money. But they need to look at it this way – including local coop would be a HUGE marketing opportunity…. so few (BIG) games do it these days. Make your game stand out and make it great at the same time… win win..?

I’ve never really gotten into the AC series which I think is partly because I end up getting bored. Plus, Ubi’s character models/movements have always struck me as a bit odd. This does look gorgeous though, especially Notre Dame. Maybe I will pick it up.

what’s up? where is the FLASH SALE at? I know you guys had a FLASH SALE GOING ON yesterday on the PSN store, but the games that you listed with a certain price weren’t really showing that certain sale price. Technical issues perhaps?

In any case, I’m looking forward to it, as I was all ready to pull out my wallet and buy something.

I hope you guys add more titles than the ones listed yesterday. Some pSone games would be nice to see on sale as well.

Like, Splinter Cell, Metal Gear Solid, some RPG’s not necessarily Final Fantasy games as I already have most of them, although I do not have FFVIII yet, so that would be a nice addition to the sale.

Can’t wait to get this on day one! Also I am really looking forward to Rogue, but I’m sure that will be released on PS4 in the Spring and it’s much better to wrap up side missions via remote play for me than to be trapped in my basement. Decisions!

This series I feel has some cool concept s but I just could never get into this game at all but it’s good to see co- op making its way into the game this time as co-op online Is just as popular as multiplayer.

@ oo7PorscheMGS: The reason we’re not seeing couch co-op in AAA games is because of the huge drain on the system resources to simply render the game. If you have splitscreen/couch co-op in the game, then the system is having to render potentially two entirely different parts of the game world at the same time. That is extremely taxing on the system. So something like Unity, which is being built to push the current-gen systems as hard as Ubisoft can at the moment, would have to be scaled back steeply on a graphical level in order for couch co-op to be possible. Personally, my friends and I (and many friends I have on PSN who I’ve never met) are too busy with our lives to get together in one place to play games. Couch co-op doesn’t make sense anymore, to a lot of people. Online co-op allows friends to play together, and the game to look as good as possible. Check out less taxing games like Ibb & Obb or Chariot for your couch co-op fix. AAA couch co-op is mostly a thing of the past, as gamers keep crying about 1080p/60fps being the goal of modern game development.

ON-TOPIC: The game looks amazing, and I’m one of those crazy people planning to get both Unity and Rogue. Looking forward to playing both.

I’m glad that competitive MP is gone from AC…..finally…that was the best news ever when I heard it,now in the next game get rid of all the online once and for all,AC ain’t no game for online….anyway I will be getting Rogue in the future and Unity when very very cheap…..no way I’m paying full price on a fake game like Unity….maybe when Ubi don’t show fake footage on E3 and afterwards videos of downgraded gameplay….and show real gameplay like they used to do when AC was showed on Sony’s conference…no lies….then I’ll buy it at full price.

All that to make xbox look like something ha how funny cuz it made it look like a joke that it is.